9.08.2011

Shut Out by Kody Kelpinger

Most high school sports teams have rivalries with other schools. At Hamilton High, it's a civil war: the football team versus the soccer team. And for her part, Lissa is sick of it. Her quarterback boyfriend, Randy, is always ditching her to go pick a fight with the soccer team or to prank their locker room. And on three separate occasions Randy's car has been egged while he and Lissa were inside, making out. She is done competing with a bunch of sweaty boys for her own boyfriend's attention.Lissa decides to end the rivalry once and for all. She and the other players' girlfriends go on a hookup strike. The boys won't get any action from them until the football and soccer teams make peace. What they don't count on is a new sort of rivalry: an impossible girls-against-boys showdown that hinges on who will cave to their libidos first. And Lissa never sees her own sexual tension with the leader of the boys, Cash Sterling, coming.

Like all of Kody's book, full of romance, hysterics but still maintains a deep message in it's shades of gray.

Shut Out follows the story of Lissa, who is absolutely tired of this in-school rivalry between the football and soccer team cutting in with her time with the boyfriend (who is the quarterback of the team.) When people actually start getting hurt, she gathers up all the girlfriend of the team members and they launch a sex strike, refusing to put out until this nonsense is put to an end. It's a retelling of the greek play, Lysteria but keeps it's uniqueness, especially with a character like Lissa on the front.

Kody has this writing sense (like authors such as Sarah Ockler and Sarah Mlynowsky) that can touch on tough subjects -- in this case, sex, and why the hell it's considered so taboo to just come out and talk about it -- but still maintain a humor and lightness without sounding preachy. Lissa's was the perfect character to narrate the story, with her funny and neurotic nature, she's the type of girl i'd want as a friend, regardless of some of her decisions. All of the girls were pretty awesome, especially her best friend, Chloe!

I totally called it on her boyfriend from the beginning, and I adored Cash. He was sweet and hot and Kody knows how to write sexytimes, people! Overall, a funny, sweet book that has plenty of romance to make you swoon!